In Flanders Fields with Tim Cook, Mary Janigan and Roméo Dallaire

We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flander’s Fields.

— John McCrae

Mary Janigan

Tim Cook - Photo courtesy of John Williams

Join us for an exploration of the importance of art in how we process war and loss with three of the contributors to In Flanders Fields: 100 Years: Writing on War, Loss and Remembrance, a new book that commemorate the anniversary of Canada’s most famous poem.

In early 1915, the death of a young friend on the battlefields of Ypres inspired Canadian soldier, field surgeon and poet John McCrae to write “In Flanders Fields.” Within months of the poem’s December 1915 publication in the British magazine Punch, it became part of the collective consciousness in North America and Europe, and its extraordinary power has endured over the decades and across generations.

Retired Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire on the emotional meaning of the poem for war veterans; Tim Cook on the rich and varied life of McCrae; and Mary Janigan on the poem’s surprisingly divisive effect during the 1917 federal election.